The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1911. THE CHILDREN’S TEETH.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 48, 29 September 1911, Page 2

The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1911. THE CHILDREN’S TEETH.

At the recent sitting of the British Medical Conference, that important subject —the prevention of dental caries—was discussed at some length. Dr James Wheatley, who introduced the subject, said that from a public health standpoint the extreme importance of the subject depended on the extraordinary and increasing prevalence of the condition, winch had reached such a point that it became a disgrace to . a civilised nation if every reasonable effort were not made to suppress it. There were three principal reasons for this increase—namely, that until recently no public body had considered the prevention of the condition ; the medical profession, which was the advisor of the public on all questions of personal hygiene, has been profoundly ignorant of this matter; while the dental profession had not come in contact with the people as a whole, and, generally speaking, had not been engaged in preventive work. Fie urged that a knowledge of the hygiene of the mouth should form part of the training of every medical man, so that he should thoroughly understand the effect upon the teeth of every deviation from physiological living and of living and of pathological conditions, and also the effect on general health of diseased conditions of the mouth. The great cause of dental caries was the retention of starchy -food in contact with the teeth, and the practical questions to be decided were how to form proper habits of mastication and how food should be prepared and eaten so as to leave the teeth clean. The great hope for the future in this respect was to be found in the medical inspection and instruction of school children and as county school medical officer for Shropshire he had issued and circulated in the schools a pamphlet dealing with the matter. Mr Hopewell Smith described a number of experiments he had carried out on the effects of sweetmeats on the secretions of the mouth. He showed that the presence of sugar in the saliva in association with even a few of the caries-producing bacteria rendered the saliva acid, and it was under these conditions that the superficial changes which led to caries were set up. At the close of the debate the following reso-

lution was carried unanimously : “ That the Council of the Association be requested to urge upon the Board of Education the need of pressing the local authorities to establish school clinics, as being the only means whereby the dental and elementary needs of school children can be adequatelv and economically treated.” It is certainly evident that dental troubles are increasingly prevalent.in Britain as well as in Australia and New Zealand and it is appalling to contemplate what a toothless people we shall become in the course of another generation or so, unless some real remedy is discovered.